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Project Descriptions

FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, Season Five

March 1, 2009 - February 29, 2012 | Media and Technology, Public Programs
FETCH with Ruff Ruffman, produced by WGBH, is a daily half-hour PBS television series with accompanying Web and outreach activities targeted to 6- to 10-year olds. The program brings science learning to young children by uniquely blending live-action with animation, game show convention with reality programming, and humor with academics. The intended impacts of this new season are to 1) help the target audience, especially girls and minorities, develop an interest, knowledge and skills necessary to do science; 2) help kids develop the math skills and knowledge necessary to solve science and engineering problems; and 3) bring FETCH's unique brand of informal science learning to camps across the country. The requested funds will allow the project to expand the science curriculum with 20 new half-hour episodes and expand the Web site, focusing on three new science themes that highlight topics of interest to this age group: "Animal Universe," "Science of Art," and "Adventure Science." The Web site will include four new science-based Web games that will allow kids to create and post content of their own design and interact with other FETCH fans online. In addition, funds will support new educational resources for camps, including a Camp FETCH Guide. The project will continue to work with the project's established collaborators like the Boys and Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts of America, and YMCA, as well expand the outreach via new partnerships with the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University and the American Camp Association. Christine Andrews Paulsen & Associates (CAPA) will conduct summative evaluation of both the television show and the Camp FETCH Guide.

Funders

NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 0840307
Funding Amount: 985999

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Kate Taylor
    Principal Investigator
    WGBH
  • Discipline: Art, music, and theater | Engineering | General STEM | Life science | Mathematics | Nature of science
    Audience: Elementary School Children (6-10) | Museum/ISE Professionals
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Broadcast Media | Websites, Mobile Apps, and Online Media | Public Programs | Summer and Extended Camps
    Access and Inclusion: Women and Girls

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